Traditional film production techniques usually involve the shooting of multiple video or film `takes` or `clips`. Normally much more film is shot than is required for the final result. The resultant film is normally edited by a film editor who uses scissor like splicers and adhesive tape to cut and paste together the desired shots. Artistic decisions about the selection of shots to enhance the performance are made and a final result produced.
If dissolves or wipes are required between two sources, then the processing becomes much more complicated, often involving the use of multiple video recorders and vision switchers.
Although editing and mixing can be implemented on a frame by frame basis, it is desirable to be able to format the editing/production process with what is known in the industry as a "storyboard". The storyboard represents a plan of the film video or animation that is to be created as assists in the visualisation of the production. Storyboards are traditionally created by hand, going through many interactions and revisions during production and is basically a chart of various sources of audio/video and how they are to be combined over time to produce the final film. Furthermore, as a director, or the like may wish to alter the production once an initial storyboard has been created, it is highly desirable that the storyboard itself be readily editable.
Recently, computer systems have been introduced which go part of the way to automate this process. Typically, these systems require animations to be created on a frame by frame basis, storing each frame on a disk, with the image being played back at a later date by reading each frame from the disk and displaying it on a computer screen or the like.
Recently, in Australian Patent Application No. 38238/93, entitled "An Audio and Video Processor System", claiming priority from Australian Provisional Patent No. PL2141 filed 29th Apr., 1992, and to which U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/053,569 corresponds, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,252, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by cross-reference, a video animation system was proposed that was capable to producing real-time video animation through the use of real-time object (RTO) technology. That document, and other co-related documents describe apparatus that can perform audio and video mixing, editing, sampling, and the like at a substantially reduced cost with respect to prior art arrangements. For a discussion of RTO technology, refer to Australian Patent Application No. 38244/93, entitled "A Real-Time Object Based Graphics System" claiming priority from Australian Provisional Patent No. PL2147, filed 29th Apr., 1992, and to which U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/053,373 corresponds, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,839, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by cross-reference.
As a result of these developments, there is an ever increasing need for an automated storyboard system capable of editing, ordering and timing multiple clips for subsequent display.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automated storyboard mechanism which substantially meets these needs.